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Happy Friday! It's December!!Ìý I am sure everyone has been having fun looking at the new list!!

Admin news:Ìý we have our new list!Ìý There are topic posts and discussion post, etc.Ìý

And we want to talk about the monthlyÌýcategories for next year!!
Because the list came out late this year, we need to get RIGHT ON THIS so we can next vote on books to read in Jan/Feb/March. Ìý Lynn made a list of categories that are generic enough to work for anyone (so no "best friend" etc). We bounced around some ideas and chose categories that seem to lend themselves to particular months. After she lined all those up, there are 21 remaining categories, and 2 open months, April and September:

* January #27 A book about do-overs or fresh starts—New Year, new start!
* February #2 An Afrofuturist book—Black History month (US & Canada)
* March #8 A book that has won the Women’s Prize for Fiction—Women’s History month (Australia, UK, US)
* April TBD
* May #24 A book by a Muslim American author—in honor of Islamic holiday Eid al-Fitr on May 13, 2021
* June #20 A book on a Black Lives Matter reading list—in honor of Juneteenth on June 19, 2021 (aka African American Freedom Day or Emancipation Day)
* July #22 A book set mostly or entirely outdoors—in honor of summer in the northern
hemisphere
* August #5 A dark academia book—typical month for the academic year to begin
* September TBD
* October #13 A locked-room mystery—“Spooktober�/Halloween
* November #16 A book by an indigenous author—Native American Heritage month
* December #1 A book published in 2021—‘cause it’s the end of the year!

21 UNASSIGNED PROMPTS REMAIN
3. A book that has a heart, diamond, club, or spade on the cover
6. A book with a gem, mineral, or rock in the title
9. A book with a family tree
10. A bestseller from the 1990s
11. A book about forgetting
14. A book set in a restaurant
15. A book with a black-and-white cover
17. A book that has the same title as a song
19. A book that discusses body positivity
21. A genre hybrid
23. A book with something broken on the cover
25. A book that was published anonymously
26. A book with an oxymoron in the title
28. A magical realism book
29. A book set in multiple countries
31. A book by a blogger, vlogger, YouTube video creator, or other online personality
32. A book whose title starts with “Q,� “X,� or “Z�
33. A book featuring three generations (grandparent, parent, child)
34. A book about a social justice issue
36. A book that has fewer than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ
38. A book about art or an artist


HERE'S THE PLAN: Lynn set up a poll which will go live NOW including all of the 21 categories above. The top two winners will get slotted into Apr & Sept.
A Second Poll is set up to choose the January group read for "fresh start."

Ìý
Also, our December read of The Vanishing Half has started.Ìý This book was also just voted "Best Book of 2020" in the Popsugar Book Club Awards.




This week I finished 3 books.
Empire of Wild by Cherie Dimaline - this was fantastically moody and I really enjoyed my reading experience, but the ending sort of went splat for me.ÌýÌý
Out There Somewhere poems by Simon J. Ortiz- I didn't really enjoy these poems
If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane - this was a sort of spontaneous read for me, and I loved it!ÌýÌýIt's more chick lit than rom-com.



Question of the Week
Which topic on our new list are you most excited about?Ìý Which topic are you dreading?


I think I'm excited about finding a locked room mystery, afrofuturist book, and Muslim author.

And I am DREADING the anonymous author.Ìý I have no idea what I'll do for that.ÌýÌý

Is it cliche to say "I can't believe it's December already"? But I really can't believe it. It's been such a weird year and I'm so glad to have this group. I finished the 2020 challenge this week! Just before the new list came out. The last two books I finished were The Labors of Hercules for a book I wanted to read in 2019 and Owls of the Eastern Ice: A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl for the book with a bird on the cover. (By the way, Owls of the Eastern Ice was longlisted for a national book award this year and currently only has 92 reviews on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ, so it could fill that prompt for books with less than 1000 reviews, as long as there aren't too many people reading it between now and January.)

Now I'm just reading for fun, for the most part. I'm reading The Ship of Dreams: The Sinking of the Titanic and the End of the Edwardian Era, which we are going to give my in-laws for Christmas, I'm just reading it first. It's a little all over the place with what it's talking about. I can't tell if it's supposed to be about the sinking of the Titanic, or just generally about everything that was going on at the time. Either way, I'm really enjoying it. I've also just started a re-read of Dune. I first read this book at least 20 years ago and I'm looking forward to re-visiting Paul Atreides. Plus, my library is doing their book podcast on Dune for the next few episodes.

QOTW: I'm excited about the locked room mystery and the dark academia book. I'm less excited about a bestseller from the 90s. Didn't we already read them all back in the 90s? I'm sure I'll find something I didn't read. Or just re-read something, maybe. I suppose I'm interested to see if some of those books stand the test of time.

I've been very distracted by the new list this week so not much reading has been happening.

I finished The Dark Archive which was fun as always with this series. Just enjoying reading things without trying to shoe-horn them into prompts!

QOTW:
Now I've had a bit more time with the list I am coming to like it more. Looking forward to afrofuturism and dark academia, I like these sort of niche genre prompts. I am not thrilled with the advanced prompts because I like to have multiple options. I'm just going to have to be ruthless with my longest book and DNF and donate any that don't grab me immediately. From the regular prompts I'm least excited about the 90s bestseller.

Two Week Check In and I’m finished with the challenge so I’m just going to put these in order from most like to least liked

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria. Contemporary romance. Latinx characters. Really enjoyable.

Agnes at the End of the World by Kelly McWilliams. YA. Cults and pandemics. Really liked it. Plus, it’s a great cover

Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren. Friends to Lovers. Contemporary romance. Pretty enjoyable. Her over the top wackiness kind of got annoying but still enjoyable.

By the Book by Amanda Sellet. YA romance. Cute and I appreciate that the main character who goes to public school for the first time makes friends who aren’t jerks. The female friendship is delightful.

Convetionally Yours by Annabeth Albert. Billed as enemies to lovers which it technically was. I just need more enemies part.

No Offense by Meg Cabot. Contemporary Romance. I enjoyed this more than the first one in the series but not as much as I love the Size 12 series.

Emeraled Blaze by Ilona Andrews. My least favorite in the series so far.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert. Contemporary romance. Just okay. Didn’t enjoy it enough to pick up the second one.

My Kind of Earl by Vivienne Lorret. Historical romance. Okay but not great, it took me a bit to finish.

QOTW:
I’ve been super busy so I’ve only skimmed the list but all those TBR prompts on the advanced list should be easy given my huge TBR pile.

Good Morning all, I read two books for the week. I also completed Nonfiction November.
Walt Whitman in Washington,D.C.: The Civil War & America’s Great Poet by Garrett Peck.
One Of Us Is Lying (One Of Us Is Lying #1) by Karen M. McManus. Someone posted in the prompt threads this book is a locked room mystery.
QOTW: Topics I’m looking forward to. A magical realism book. Topics I’m dreading. The zodiac sign book. The book published anonymously.

Finished:

Death Star by Michael Reeves and Steve Perry (reread)

This one is still good!

What Judgments Come by Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (reread)

I still like the series, but I am not as high on it now as I was when it was coming out.

This is How You Die: Stories of the Inscrutable, Infallible, Inescapable Machine of Death

I like the concept of the anthology, but only the Sherlock Holmes story and the one with the mall rioting left me with a favorable impression

Ex Libris: Confessions of a Common Reader by Anne Fadiman

This one gets a strong 3/5 from me. If you're here, you probably like books, words, and writing. The author definitely delivers some good stuff that most lifelong readers will enjoy. Like any essay collection, though, some of the pieces connect more than others. The book is also probably better for those who read poetry.

Currently reading:

Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie

As the cover indicates, a dog plays a big role in this mystery.

Administrative note: This will probably be corrected shortly, but when I looked at the poll, it was set up for 2021 instead of 2020.

Question of the Week:

My overall impression of the list is positive. I do not really dig magical realism, but I may find a book that helps turn me around on the genre.

On the other hand, I love locked room mysteries, and a book about something you are passionate about sounds great to me.

Happy Thursday! I'm very excited for the new list and trying to plan out what I'll be reading for each prompt. I forgot to post last week with Thanksgiving so I have two weeks worth of books to post.

Finished:
The House in the Cerulean Sea - this was such a great story with such a powerful meaning. I really think everyone should read it. 5 big stars!

Room - this book was the one on my TBR the longest, but I finally read it! I used it for prompt #25 - a book with only words on the cover. 4 stars

The Ten Thousand Doors of January - this book was beautifully written, but a bit slow at times. 4 stars

The Kiss Quotient - I was surprised by how steamy this book actually was, but enjoyed the story. I used it for prompt #22 - a book by or about a woman in STEM. 4 stars

Challenge Progress:
Regular Challenge - 39/40
Advanced Challenge - 9/10
Total - 48/50 - almost done!

Currently Reading:
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue - I had to put this on hold to finish a book for another challenge in November so just picked it back up yesterday. It's a great story so far.

This Time Next Year - I thought this had a bit of a slow start, but I'm really enjoying it now that I'm about halfway done with it.

Still Alice - this has been on my TBR for a while. I'm using it for a Facebook group challenge prompt for an independently published book. The author lives in my town which is pretty cool! This would work for next year's challenge prompt about #11 - a book about forgetting.

QOTW - Question of the Week
Which topic on our new list are you most excited about? Which topic are you dreading?

I really like the prompt "a book with the same title as a song". I have quite a few books that fit this prompt. I'm also looking forward to a locked-room mystery.

I'm dreading "a book that has won the Women's Prize for Fiction". I like the prompt, but there are so few options that I find it a bit restrictive. There are a few other prompts that I haven't figured out what I'll be reading for, but I don't know that I'm dreading them.

Another week of very little reading and no finishes. That’s 3 weeks in a row now. But I have plans to change that this week. Now that we have the new list, I’m able to see which books on my TBR I can use for prompts and which I should read now.

My apartment is decorated for Christmas, and I have my first (virtual) Christmas party on Saturday. I have another planned for next week and a no-contact gift exchange for the week after. It’s nice to have something to look forward to.

QOTW
I think I have to say I’m most excited about “a book with less than 1,000 reviews on Amazon or Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ.â€� I suggested that prompt! I’m dreading the body positivity prompt because I’m worried about triggers.

Happy Thursday! Yet another check-in! 2021 list is out! So excited!!!

MORE Admin Stuff:

UPDATE AS OF 11:45AM TODAY!
Uh-oh. So, the first poll I created to select April and September 2021 monthly group read categories was incorrect since I listed the start and end dates in 2021 rather than 2020! However, when I edited it it was still inactive. Then when I recreated the poll, it refused to allow me to start it today, but instead it will begin at 12:01AM TOMORROW (December 4) morning! I am so sorry!
Here is the link for this poll which will open tomorrow morning and end at 11:59PM on Wednesday, December 9!

After typing this I realized that I failed to setup a January book poll to select our book with a do-over or fresh start! YIKES! So I set that up quickly this morning and here it is! THIS ONE IS WORKING! listed several to get us started and you're more than welcome to write-in a book you prefer. Again, voting will continue through next Wednesday, December 9! I also linked this one to the group homepage to make it more visible.

Sheesh! Surely I’ll get the hang of doing all this! Sooner or later…better sooner!

I am counting the Popsugar Fall Challenge finally DONE and will not be adding to it. I had raised the goal from 8 to 20 and reached that on November 25. 😊

Popsugar: 50/50 DONE!
ATY: 52/52 DONE!
RHC: 22/24
Reading Women: 21/26
Finished the POPSUGAR!

FINISHED:
Strange the Dreamer by Liani Taylor ���������� to complete Popsugar #18-Book with a made-up language. (The last book for Popsugar!) Oh, my! Wow. This is one that could easily cause a book hangover, IMO. I will be processing this for a while�
POPSUGAR: #3-“On the second Sabbat of Twelfthmoon, in the city of Weep, a girl feel from the sky.�, #6, #12, NEW #18, #20, #21, #27-Pride, Lust, Greed, Envy, Wrath, #33-4.28, #35
ATY: #5, #10-544 pages, #11-2017, #16, #19, #22, #25-Strange is a storyteller, #33, #34-Romance, Young Adult, #43-Death, War, #52
RHC: #10, #16
Reading Women: #12-Sarai, #17, #22-New-to-me publisher: Little, Brown for Young Readers

Ken Liu’s The Grace of Kings �������� (Dandelion Dynasty #1) for a 2020 Reading Challenge Buddy Read that we extended from October to November. This seemed much like reality TV, IMO. While I appreciate and enjoy Liu’s writing skill/style, I admit to being easily bored with political intrigue like gossip, planting false narrative, etc. It just reminds me too much of what the US has endured these past four years� It is mainly Liu’s great skill at characterization with little contact that keeps my interest. And his involvement of females! Even as warriors/military leaders!! You go, Ken! 😉 Now I'm looking forward to the sequel The Wall of Storms! Though I probably won't start it 'til January.
POPSUGAR: #3-“A white bird hung still in the clear western sky and flapped its wings sporadically.�, #6, #9, #12, #18, #27-Pride, Lust, Greed, Envy, Wrath, #43-Mata’s double-pupiled eyes, #50
ATY: #2, #4, #5, #16, #18, #19, #22, #43-Death, War, Famine, #51, #52
RHC: #10

CONTINUING:
I could not locate my copy of House Made of Dawn but I did pull out The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian and There There, though I decided I’d better concentrate on the two books I needed to finish reading first…and it took all 4 days just for that! 😊 Admittedly, they certainly were not short ones�544 and 640 pages respectively.

Then I realized that this is December! The last month of the year. Better get those other books read to finish other challenges! Plus, I was in the mood for a mystery! I love mysteries! So I started reading Sherry Thomas’s A Study in Scarlet Women and am loving it! Plus I can read it through the week in bits! I should be able to finish it by week’s end. This is for the Read Harder Challenge prompt #2 Retelling of a classic of the canon, fairy tale, or by an author of color.

I also started Edith Wharton’s The Age of Innocence for the next Literary Wives book. It is supposed to be reviewed by Monday. My copy includes much theoretical criticism, etc. I read the introduction which was quite interesting and detailed.

The Red Rooster Cookbook: The Story of Food and Hustle in Harlem and listening to Our Harlem: Seven Days of Cooking, Music and Soul at the Red Rooster on Audible for the Read Harder Challenge prompt #13 Read a food book about a cuisine you’ve never tried before. Marcus Samuelsson did both of these and I have listened to the first section of the Audible recording and it is fascinating!

How to Be an Antiracist by Ibram X. Kendi for the campus White Racial Literacy Project book club on campus. Next meeting December 8th.

The Souls of Black Folk by W.E.B. Dubois, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism by Robin DiAngelo, Learning Race, Learning Place: Shaping Racial Identities and Ideas in African American Childhoods by Erin Winkler, and Stamped: Racism, Antiracism, and You by Jason Reynolds and Ibram X. Kendi. I was hoping to finish them for Nonfiction November.

Yet another nonfiction read--Hidden Valley Road: Inside the Mind of an American Family by Robert Kolker. Amazing! He depicts the unpredictable behaviors so well!

PLANNED:
The Color of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother by James McBride or A Cat of a Different Color (Alice Nestleton Mystery #2) by Lydia Adamson for the 2020 Reading Challenge Color Challenge prompt #17 Read a book with the word “color� in the title. I really want to read the first one, but I’m pretty sure the second one will be a faster read…decisions, decisions!

Home (Binti #2) by Nnedi Okorafor for the Reading Women prompt #7 Read a book featuring Afrofuturism or Africanfuturism. And then I'll read The Night Masquerade in 2021 for the Popsugar Afrofuturism prompt!

Home Fire by Kamila Shamsie for the Reading Women prompt #5 Read a book that won the Stella Prize or Women’s Prize for Fiction. I am hoping to really enjoy this!

Question of the Week:
Which topic on our new list are you most excited about? Which topic are you dreading?

Hmmm...I am very excited by many of them. Though I guess those advanced prompts using my TBR are perhaps the most exciting. Here's hoping I can control myself and NOT purchase any more books for any of those 10 prompts! :)

I am perhaps dreading the prompt regarding reading a book in a different format. I will probably read an audiobook for that. But then which one? ;) I may do a reread for that prompt.

Happy Thursday! It's cold and rainy here but I'm in a sunny mood! I don't know why, and I'm not going to look too deeply either. I missed last week's check-in but I have actual progress to report.

I finally finished Odessa Sea for a book from a series with more than 20 books. I always enjoy Clive Cussler books. I thought this one broke some of the formulaic points his other books stick too. Still not a ton of character development, but there was a bit more depth with the side characters which I liked.

I listened to Daisy Jones & The Six all in one day while I was painting my house last week. I really enjoyed the ensemble cast reading it. It was like an episode of "Behind the Music". Also, I love Judy Greer so the fact she played a role was awesome. This was for a book that passes the Bechdel Test.

I also finished The Merciless for a book with an upside-down image on the cover. It was okay. I liked the ending and that it was fast-paced but otherwise, the characters are flat and awful so I didn't care much for any of them. And the violence seemed gratuitous rather than purposeful. I probably won't read any more in the series.

I still have 6 books to read to finish the challenge but the new list has given me new motivation to get it done. I think I can do it, especially once school goes on break.

QOTW: I am most excited about all of the advanced prompts that focus on my TBR. I also am intrigued by dark academia. I've never sought out this genre before but it seems interesting. I think the one I'm not excited about is a book by an anonymous author or by a blogger/vlogger/youtuber. Just not really my thing, but I've been surprised by what I've found in previous challenges so it might change by the end of next year. That's what I love most about doing this! It gets me out of my comfort zone.

Oh my gosh y'all - I finally finished some books! I also rearranged things to use mostly short fiction or comics for the rest of the 2020 prompts because I'm SO behind. But I think with the modifications I can make it!

DNF

The Kiss Quotient - this seemed promising but I became disillusioned. Disappointing because I was more than halfway through it.

Finished

Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country - delightful! The stories are pretty short and light on intricate plotting, but I loved the folklore and the way they were written. Just what I needed these days!

The Egg - incredibly short story, but it's been on my TBR forever and it was pretty cool.

Pigeons from Hell - a story from the Lovecraft Circle I've been meaning to read. Has some "product of its time" racism, but I did rather like the creep factor and the ending.

Currently Reading

Severance - why am I reading a plague book? Because the satirical black humor suits me now.

The Cybernetic Tea Shop - seems very cozy so far, even as it deals with some heavy issues.

QOTW:

Excited about the pretty cover because I'm very much crushing on Island Queen; not thrilled with Women's Prize for Fiction - I can fudge what's a "bestseller" from the '90s but this leaves little wiggle room, and I'm not one for fancy-pants literary fiction (a/k/a depressing stuff about real life which I get enough of from actual real life, thank you.)

It’s been a pretty busy week, but I managed to get my Christmas tree up on the 1st! It looks so pretty!

POPSUGAR: 50/50
Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ: 219/150

Finished Reading:
The Last Wish
If you’d like to read my thoughts about this book, you can find them at .

DNF:
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun � While I do think this book is pretty interesting, I’ve just had a really hard time staying focused on it. I will probably come back to it at some point, but I’m just not in the right place to read it right now. I guess I could always use it for next year’s DNF prompt, huh?

Currently Reading:
Sword of Destiny

QOTW:
Personally, I’m most excited for the advanced prompts. One of my goals for next year is to make a dent in my TBR shelves, and the advanced prompts will definitely help with that.

I’m really not thrilled about the “Women’s Prize for Fiction� prompt. I’m not a big fan of reading books just because they’ve won an award, and next year’s prompt is a bit more restrictive than this year’s was.

QOTW - Question of the Week
Which topic on our new list are you most excited about? Which topic are you dreading?

I'm most excited for the advanced prompts. An easy way to make a dent in my TBR list, while still keeping it fun. There are several prompts that I'm not excited about, but I like to stay openminded about genre related prompts that are out of my comfort zone (magical realism), so I would say the Women's Prize for Fiction" prompt is my least favorite. I only saw one book on there that I was excited about, but I've used it for a past prompt and don't want to repeat.

Happy Thursday! I had four days off last weekend and missed posting here, so I'll update for two weeks! We got our Christmas tree up, so the house feels festive, even if we're still watching horror movies in December :D

She-Wolves: The Women Who Ruled England Before Elizabeth - 4 stars. Lots of research went into this one!
Fullmetal Alchemist, Vol. 8 - 5 stars, I love this series
The Big Over Easy - 3.5 stars, took me ages to read but I had a lot of fun with this one
Saga, Vol. 1 - 5 stars, new favorite Banned book
The Cartography of Sudden Death - 3.5 stars
±á´Ç°ù°ù´Ç°ù²õ³Ùö°ù - 3 stars, funny
Johannes Cabal and the Blustery Day - 4 stars
Exeunt Demon King - 4 stars

50/50

Currently reading:
The Burning God
Brown Girl in the Ring

Which topic on our new list are you most excited about? Which topic are you dreading? I'm excited for a lot of 2021's prompts but I'm a little worried because I'm not sure how it will fit into my personal reading plans for the year. We'll see! Not looking forward to the locked-room mystery but the Listopia lists are a blessing so I'm sure I'll find something :)

Ellie wrote: "I am not thrilled with the advanced prompts because I like to have multiple options. I'm just going to have to be ruthless with my longest book and DNF and donate any that don't grab me immediately."

I'm debating how to handle these prompts. I'm thinking about interpreting these as longest/shortest/oldest book when I get to the prompt. I prefer to do the regular prompts first if I can. The longest two books on my TBR right now fill two difficult regular prompts, and I'd like to use them for those prompts.

Happy Thursday! I'm leading the discussion of The Vanishing Half this month and hope folks will join us over there. The timing is difficult with the release of the 2021 list... My notifications have been blowing up! ;)

This week I finished:

A Promised Land Ah, I should have read the full description of this book before placing an early "recommendation" hold months ago. This was not what I was expecting or hoping for. It was a very detailed play-by-play of U.S. political history from about 2007-2011. I thought it was going to be a lot more personal and talk about post-presidency. Not at all :(

Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Now this one, I adored. Some of it hit too close to home and I cried three times, but luckily it was pretty balanced with different stories, and I liked the short chapters. Highly recommend. 5 stars

The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. I liked this, even though I was familiar with a good amount of the history covered. 4 stars

I'm currently listening to Exciting Times and reading The Vanishing Half in print.

QOTW: I'm generally excited about the TBR prompts, although I might make some of them a little more flexible, like ONE of the longest books on my TBR, etc. I also like the diversity ones, BLM reading list, etc.

Some of the prompts are really restrictive, especially since I'm reading only books by BIPOC authors for the challenge this year. The '90s bestseller one, women's fiction prize winner, oxymoron, and anonymous ones are pretty limited in options.

Hello! I finished National Novel Writing Month on the November 30th, for my 16th straight win. Now that Nano is over, I can get back to all my book reading. All my library holds came off pause, and then I realized a couple of them are better suited for next year's prompts, and half promptly went back on pause. But I get to read again!

Finished this week: Lightspeed Magazine, June 2014: Women Destroy Science Fiction! Special Issue - this was my edition of a literary magazine for Read Harder, and I would naturally pick the almost 500 page one. Finally finished it. So many good authors in there. Some I recognized, some I didn't, and now I want to go find their other stuff. It's long, but so varied.

Witchling by Yasmine Galenorn - I was waiting for We Ride Upon Sticks from the library to be my ATY about witches prompt, but then I saw a lot of people using it for Dark Academia, so that hold went back on pause until the end of the year. (It wasn't ready anyway. Still #18 of 8) I grabbed this one off my TBR pile because it had witch in the title and looked uncomplicated. Turns out it's the first in a series of 21 books, so there's a lot of world building that goes unexplained. It was enjoyable and had an interesting cast, and most importantly, a quick read. I may seek out the next book in the series eventually. This finishes ATY.

PS: 50/50, RH: 24/25, RW: 25/26, ATY: 52/52, PS Fall: 8/10

Currently Reading: This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. The Climate by Naomi Klein. Finally started it. It's big - also almost 500 pages. It was written in 2014, and I was worried it would be dated. Already saw one milestone of "must be achieved by 2017" and winced. I'm sure there will be more. What I've read so far has been very informative. Needed for Read Harder, Reading Women and PS Fall. (would finish RH and RW)

The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis - also about climate change, and would fulfill those same three prompts. Except it's tiny, and current. Taking everything in me to not scrap the first one and just read this one. I know I'll read both, but I want the bigger one to be the one to "count."

A Plague of Giants by Kevin Hearne on audio. I'm in part 5 of 18 downloaded files. In my paperback, that puts me on page 152 of 768. I really need to find times I can listen to this that aren't driving or cooking.

And then these are the ones that I got from the library, which I need to read before my in-person (Zoom) book club in two weeks: The Beekeeper of Aleppo, Know My Name and Ready Player Two (I was number 64 in line, but my library got 100 copies!).

Finally, I got Invisible Women: Data Bias in a World Designed for Men from the library for the second time, but with the new list out, I'm not sure if I should read it now, or return it for next year for a variety of prompts. There's also a new edition of it coming in March, so I'm conflicted on it.

QOTW: Which topic on our new list are you most excited about? Which topic are you dreading?
I'm most excited about the book you saw on someone's bookshelf, because that was a prompt I advocated for in the suggestion thread, but I've seen people saying it's ableist, which makes me feel bad for being excited. I have a book from the PBS NewsHour's host's bookshelf all picked out.

I'm dreading most of the TBR ones. They're not open to interpretation. It seems like your TBR is locked once you see the prompt, and you're stuck with the longest, shortest, oldest, etc. that are there once you became aware of the prompt. I also have TBR lists in multiple places (here, the library, Amazon) and I've been trying to consolidate, but even that feels like cheating (not that it changed my shortest or longest, at least not yet). I like prompts that give you lots of options, not ones where there is only one "correct" answer.

Melissa wrote: "It seems like your TBR is locked once you see the prompt, and you're stuck with the longest, shortest, oldest, etc. that are there once you became aware of the prompt. ..."


I find that helpful, actually! I know everyone is reacting differently to this one.

For me, if I sort through my TBR and find I just don't want to read the shortest/longest/oldest/whateverest book, that means I should just remove it from my TBR. And I'll keep deleting titles from my TBR until I get to one I actually want to read. My TBR is only virtual here on GR, so I don't feel pressure to get rid of a book I actually own or anything like that, which makes this easy for me.

I'm locking in my TBR at the end of the year, so I do have some wiggle room if something is terrible. Not that I want an even longer longest book. I don't really know where Kushiel's Dart is, so if I've lost it I'm not getting another copy, but then my next longest books are in series and I'm not ready for them yet.

Though I might tidy up my TBR and put some kindle books onto my depths of kindle shelf so they are not contenders. I can't really get rid of those and I might need them in the future.

Melissa wrote: "I'm most excited about the book you saw on someone's bookshelf, because that was a prompt I advocated for in the suggestion thread, but I've seen people saying it's ableist, which makes me feel bad for being excited."

From my point of view, both the explicit instructions and the spirit of the challenge are to interpret in a way that works for you. So someone who can't literally see an image of someone's bookshelf can still observe a book on someone's Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ shelf or from a listing of what's on people's physical bookshelves.

(For the record, I try to be aware of social justice issues in general, but I also don't mind arguably ableist language that applies to me personally, like using "lame" as a synonym for "ineffective" or "crazy" to mean beyond the bounds of reason and belief. Obviously people's mileage may vary.)

Happy Thursday, y’all.

Yaaaay, the list is up! I keep telling myself I don't have to pre-plan my entire list on the first day, and whoops I did. Then I've gone back and redone a few prompts because I found different books to fit the prompts, heh...

Books read this week:

The Black God's Drums -- This was so GOOD! My only complaint is that I wish it were longer so we could explore this world a little more. I hope he plans to revisit it�

A Dead Djinn in Cairo -- Had to read this when I saw that the author had written "The Black God’s Drums." Not quite as good but still fascinating. Reading the second book in the series for next year's challenge (genre hybrid).

The Lives of Saints -- Nice companion book to the Grisha-verse, though the stories did get a little repetitive at times. Lovely artwork.

Anaconda: The Writer's Cut -- The screenwriter for the “Anaconda� movie writes his own “director’s cut� version of the story in this novel. I haven’t seen the film, but the story, while a bit overwritten and over-dramatic at times, was entertaining. If you like Jaws, you’ll probably like this one.

Currently Reading:

The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
My Dark Vanessa
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, the Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog
The Librarian: A First Contact Story

QOTW:

I'll confess, I'm most excited about the "book written by a blogger/vlogger/YouTube creator" because that's a prompt I suggested. There are a LOT more of these books out there than you think... Also excited about all the TBR ones, "a book you think your best friend would like," "genre hybrid," and "a book with the same title as a song."

Least excited about "book in a different format than you normally read." I read e-books, physical books, AND graphic novels, so that pretty much leaves audiobooks unless there's another format I'm not aware of... and honestly, I have a hard time listening to a book as opposed to reading it. I'll manage, I guess. Also not terribly thrilled about the 1990s bestseller, because all the ones that actually look interesting are ones I've already read.

UPDATE AS OF 11:45AM TODAY!
Uh-oh. So, the first poll I created to select April and September 2021 monthly group read categories was incorrect since I listed the start and end dates in 2021 rather than 2020! However, when I edited it it was still inactive. Then when I recreated the poll, it refused to allow me to start it today, but instead it will begin at 12:01AM TOMORROW (December 4) morning! I am so sorry!
Here is the link for this poll which will open tomorrow morning and end at 11:59AM on Wednesday, December 9!

whoa, with all the excitement I almost forgot it was Thursday

Finished reading: (47/50 with double-dipping)

The Book Club (about a book club) - Finally finished the book club prompt! This is a paranormal thriller about a woman who goes to her weekly book club meeting and never returns, and her husband's frantic search for her. Of course there are family SECRETS and the wife has SECRETS of her own... but the SECRETS are honestly kinda dull and the characters are too. Not recommended.

Currently reading:

The Poppy War (author in her 20s, intended to read in 2019) - It's kinda too bad I'm reading this now, because it'd be perfect for next year's prompt of "a book everyone else has read but you." Oh well! Plenty of others for that prompt.


QotW: Looking forward to the Afrofuturism prompt! I also like the prompts for genre hybrids and books with less than 1000 reviews.

Dreading the Women's Prize for Fiction prompt because it's SO restrictive.

Also the "longest book" prompt is oof because Worm is 6000+ pages lol. Every year I say "this is the year I finally read Worm" but I guess 2021 really is the year.

Finally, "oxymoron in the title" and "same title as a song" seem like really annoying/niche prompts...but hopefully I'm wrong and something cool will pop up in the topics.

Kenya wrote: "Happy Thursday, y’all.

Yaaaay, the list is up! I keep telling myself I don't have to pre-plan my entire list on the first day, and whoops I did. Then I've gone back and redone a few prompts becaus..."

Oooh Kenya, if you liked Black God's Drums and A Dead Djinn in Cairo, make sure you check out The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and Ring Shout!

Ashley Marie wrote: Oooh Kenya, if you liked Black God's Drums and A Dead Djinn in Cairo, make sure you check out The Haunting of Tram Car 015, and Ring Shout!

Both those are on my to-read list, and I lined up "Haunting" as my read for "genre hybrid" in next year's challenge. 😊

I am BEYOND thrilled about the new list, especially all the TBR prompts! This is going to be so much fun! I stayed up way too late last night trying to fill in my list!

Currently Reading

I finished nothing because I'm halfway through too much, lol. Only 2 books left before I finish the 2020 challenge!

The Idiot (not for the challenge). My church book club is reading this at my request. Ha! I love Dostoyevsky SO MUCH!!! I'm excited to reread this! Also nervous because Russian classics intimidate a lot of people and I don't want people hating me for suggesting this book, lol.

Thinking Orthodox: Understanding and Acquiring the Orthodox Christian Mind (not for the challenge). I got this for free in exchange for a review and it's REALLY good so far (also EXCELLENT to see a female biblical scholar strutting her stuff! Way to represent in a male-dominated field!).

The Wilderness Journal: 365 Days with the Philokalia for "book who's title caught your attention". I cannot WAIT to be done with this book. Oh boy did it drag.

Words of Radiance for "book with a character in their 20s". Love, love, love so far!

QotW

How do I choose???? So many good ones. I'm looking forward to the book chosen at random on my TBR (Alexa picked Oathbringer!!) and the book by an Indigenous author and the magical realism prompt.
Not looking forward to longest book on my TBR only because it's The Philokalia, the Complete Text and a) I'm not sure if I can even FIND it and b) I'm not sure if I'm even ready for this kind of book. We shall see! Oh, and the book in a different format prompt. I'm print or nothing! How dare you make me change! XD

Finished reading:
The Night Tiger (no prompt): I finished this about ten minutes ago, I enjoyed it overall but lots of parts I didn't enjoy, and it was too long.

Currently reading:
Not sure yet! I'm either going with The Fallen Children which doesn't cover a prompt, or Inland for the Western prompt.

QOTW:
I have mixed feelings about the new list. I think I will go for a more casual approach next year and just see what prompts I manage to cover and try not to put too much pressure on myself! Half the prompts sound interesting and the other half look difficult! I've only managed to cover about 7 of them with books I already own.

Sara wrote: "Is it cliche to say "I can't believe it's December already"? But I really can't believe it. It's been such a weird year and I'm so glad to have this group. I finished the 2020 challenge this week! ..."

I would like to reiterate that sentiment. This group and those online friends I have made as a result of Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ have really helped me get through this year. (That's assuming I make it all the way through, of course! lol)

And we both finished POPSUGAR this week! YAY us!

Chandie wrote: "Two Week Check In and I’m finished with the challenge so I’m just going to put these in order from most like to least liked

You Had Me at Hola by Alexis Daria. Contemporary romance. Latinx charact..."

Congratulations on finishing!

Not much to update, life-wise, so I'll jump right to books!

Finished:
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - a book with a 4-star + rating on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. AAAAAAAAAAAAA SO GOOD!! I'm really excited to finish the trilogy next year!

Currently Reading:
The Art of Language Invention: From Horse-Lords to Dark Elves, the Words Behind World-Building - a book with a made-up language. So far, it's fairly boring, but maybe that's just because it's mostly been "intro to linguistics," and it hasn't been THAT long since I graduated with my MA in linguistics. *pushes up glasses*

What's Left:
Ten Women - a book that takes place in a country that begins with "C" (Chile)

Murder at Melrose Court - a book with "20" or "twenty" in the title (the full title, according to my Kindle, is Murder at Melrose Court: A 1920s Country House Murder, so I'm counting it haha)

The Great Passage - a book set in Japan

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club - a book that takes place in the 1920s

I *might* finish by the skin of my teeth! (What a weird idiom...)

QOTW:
Since I have such a huge TBR and want to finish some things that have been on mine a long time, I'm excited for all those. I did notice that I have a lot of books on my TBR with either no pages listed or vastly incorrect numbers of pages listed (like some chonkers that are listed as being 12 pages lol). So I'll probably just go with a book that's really long and leave it at that.

I do worry that accomplishing that prompt will make it really hard for me to finish the challenge next year, though.

I'm SO relieved others aren't thrilled about the Women's Prize for Fiction prompt. I felt like a bad feminist when I saw that and groaned. But as others have said, it just leaves so little CHOICE.

I have mixed feelings about the list. I'm excited for quite a few, glad that I was already able to find books I actually WANT to read for some of the super niche genres, and frustrated with several that I don't want to do, like the online personality one (no offense to the person here who recommended that, because that's got to be so exciting to see your suggestion listed, I just don't really follow, or care about, any internet personalities. I'll probably read a webcomic collection or something.) and the one about your current or dream job (I don't have a dream job and it's going to be really hard to find a book with someone in my job, so I'll just have to fudge it.).

I spent a lot of Tuesday sharing my ~thoughts~ with my best friend, so I'll save y'all from the rest of my opinions. ;)

Hi everyone,

Been really distractible this week, I'm sure getting the new list didn't help haha. I think this is the first week in....years? That I didn't finish ANYTHING. Although the fact that my current book is 700+ pages doesn't help. But usually I'd at least have barely squeaked it in, rather than still having 300+ pages to go.

anyhow I'm currently still reading European Travel for the Monstrous Gentlewoman. I like it, I just have been having trouble focusing in general. So I keep re-reading the same paragraphs over and over again, or sitting down to read then immediately getting up and doing something else etc.

I haven't been able to focus on audio books either, barely made any progress on A Gathering of Shadows either.

Hopefully can get it together and knock those both out before next week so I can get a few more things read before the next challenge starts.

Has anyone been having weird goodreads bugs? My goodreads has marked this book finished about 4 times when I distinctly am NOT even close to finished, I have 300 some pages left. It's not saying read on the kindle itself, but goodreads keeps putting it on my read shelf and when I keep putting it back to currently reading it's acting like i've read it 2-3 times in a row, I have to keep deleting read sessions and messing with dates. It's annoying. I've backed out of the book to skim through kindle titles to see what i've got while researching prompts, but that's never marked books as read before.

QOTW:

I think it's a pretty good list next year, I like it a lot better than this year's. I didn't like that this year felt very gimicky with the 20 stuff. The tbr is a little tricky for me because I don't really keep a formal list. However I DO have a ton of kindle books that I've picked up in humble bundles or on kindle deals, so I am using those prompts to get through "books I own and haven't read" more than as a TBR as a whole.

I'm excited about Afrofuturism, I bought an Afrofuturism humble bundle a while ago, and I haven't gotten through a lot of them. Good excuse to get another read. There's a bunch others that I already have some good ideas for. Lots of good diversity prompts, stuff I'd probably read already so that's good. I like genre mashups, that'll be fun. I like magical realism, and I think one of my other upcoming book club reads counts for that as well. A

I don't mind Women's prize that much, although i agree it's a bit restrictive. I think it'd maybe have been better by a woman who's won a literary prize, opening up to a bunch of awards rather than just that one. Or at least allowing the shortlist nominees, not just the winners. However my books & brew is reading An American Marriage in February, which is one of the winners, so it's a non issue for me.

I'm not thrilled about the TBR DNF book, most the time if I DNFed it's for a reason and it's not on my tbr anymore. I'm going to interpret it more as "book I wasn't in the mood for so set it down" although even those, there's usually a reason I wasn't in the mood for it and don't often really feel like going back to them. I'll figure something out, but I'm kinda tired of prompts telling you to go back and try books you already don't like again. I'm not that fickle, if I didn't like it, probably not going to change my mind.

Also don't really love prompts that rely on other people/observation skills (book best friend would like, books on other shelves). I get there's ways to fudge it like people in the group posting pictures of their shelves or offering to be best friends. But the fact that so many people have to find workarounds feels like they're not great prompts.

Also not really into the 90s bestseller. There was the prompt a couple years ago year you graduated high school which was 2001, admittedly not the 90s. but it's the same general authors coming up when I searched 90s bestsellers. King, Dan Brown, Danielle Steele, Mary Higgens Clarke etc. I don't super care for any of those authors. I did see a Toni Morrrison book so that's probably what I'll read. But still, feels like it's retreading familiar ground.

A note for the Anonymous prompt, it just says PUBLISHED anonymously, not that it's still anonymous. There's quite a few books that were published anonymously at the time, even if we know who wrote them now. Frankenstien, Go Ask Alice, The Federalist Papers, among others. Someone mentioned wanting only books by BIPOC, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was originally anonymous, before the author came forward in 1927.

Sherri wrote: "Good Morning all, I read two books for the week. I also completed Nonfiction November."

Congratulations on completing Nonfiction November!

Brandon wrote: "Currently reading:
Dumb Witness by Agatha Christie
As the cover indicates, a dog plays a big role in this mystery."

I love doggies in mysteries! Well, I love doggies in general! :)

"Administrative note: This will probably be corrected shortly, but when I looked at the poll, it was set up for 2021 instead of 2020."

Thank you so much for trying to troubleshoot and help! It does take a village sometimes! So my first experience creating polls was 50% successful. I guess that's better than 0%! Fingers crossed that I do better in the future! :) The irony here is that I thought I was purposefully paying attention to listing 2020 and NOT 2021! Ugh!

Sheri wrote: "A note for the Anonymous prompt, it just says PUBLISHED anonymously, not that it's still anonymous. There's quite a few books that were published anonymously at the time, even if we know who wrote them now."

I'm also counting people who published under pseudonyms, like the Brontes or George Eliot, since it's still "hiding their real identity."

Charlotte wrote: "Happy Thursday! It's cold and rainy here but I'm in a sunny mood! I don't know why, and I'm not going to look too deeply either. I missed last week's check-in but I have actual progress to report.
..."

I need a dose of your "sunny mood"! :)

And you're almost there. Just 6 more books! You go, girl!

Shannon, I'd agree if the pseudonym was hiding identity, probably less so for modern authors where the pseudonym is more for publishing in other genres than hiding identity all together. Like Seanan McGuire publishes her harder sci-fi under Mira Grant, but it's right on her website, as far as I'm aware she was never trying to hide anything. But that's my personal opinion, obviously everyone challenges their own way :)

Christine wrote: "I can fudge what's a "bestseller" from the '90s but this leaves little wiggle room, and I'm not one for fancy-pants literary fiction (a/k/a depressing stuff about real life which I get enough of from actual real life, thank you.)."

You crack me up! There are times when I'm really set for such books and others when I wouldn't pick one up if my life depended upon it. :)

K.L. wrote: "DNF:
The Happiness Project: Or Why I Spent a Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun � While I do think this book is pretty interesting, I’ve just had a really hard time staying focused on it. I will probably come back to it at some point, but I’m just not in the right place to read it right now. I guess I could always use it for next year’s DNF prompt, huh?."

Hah! Ready made for that 2021 prompt! :)

Lauren wrote: "Happy Thursday! I'm leading the discussion of The Vanishing Half this month and hope folks will join us over there. The timing is difficult with the release of the 2021 list... My notifications have been blowing up! ;)"

Ack! I neglected to list The Vanishing Half in my planned listing! I have my copy and am hoping to read it about mid-month! I know what you mean about notifications! :)

"This week I finished:
A Promised Land Ah, I should have read the full description of this book before placing an early "recommendation" hold months ago. This was not what I was expecting or hoping for. It was a very detailed play-by-play of U.S. political history from about 2007-2011. I thought it was going to be a lot more personal and talk about post-presidency. Not at all :("

Don't hold me to this, but I think I remember reading somewhere that he is planning to write more than one memoir regarding his history-making Presidency. (Though I haven't read this one yet, I hope he writes more!) I'm planning to read this sometime next year.

"Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, Her Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Now this one, I adored. Some of it hit too close to home and I cried three times, but luckily it was pretty balanced with different stories, and I liked the short chapters. Highly recommend. 5 stars"

I keep wondering about this book! I have yet to find a therapist with whom I have a beneficial relatonship. It has been 3 years since my all-time favorite therapist died and I'm a bit bereft without one, but...I have learned that none is better than someone who doesn't truly help me. That just tends to add even more frustration to my life, rather than decreasing it!

Sheri wrote: "Shannon, I'd agree if the pseudonym was hiding identity, probably less so for modern authors where the pseudonym is more for publishing in other genres than hiding identity all together. Like Seana..."

I completely agree--if there was never any real anonymity, I don't think the pseudonym works. But I'm using it historically because I've been wanting to read some George Eliot and this will be the perfect excuse! :)

Melissa wrote: "Hello! I finished National Novel Writing Month on the November 30th, for my 16th straight win. Now that Nano is over, I can get back to all my book reading. All my library holds came off pause, and..."

I am so very impressed by your achievement! Congratulations!

"I'm dreading most of the TBR ones. They're not open to interpretation. It seems like your TBR is locked once you see the prompt, and you're stuck with the longest, shortest, oldest, etc. that are there once you became aware of the prompt. I also have TBR lists in multiple places (here, the library, Amazon) and I've been trying to consolidate, but even that feels like cheating (not that it changed my shortest or longest, at least not yet). I like prompts that give you lots of options, not ones where there is only one "correct" answer."

This made me chuckle. I interpret these prompts according to my preferences. So, for the longest book, I'll likely select the longest book that is most convenient or appealing to me at the time. For example, if I already own it, that makes it very convenient and if I'm truly interested in reading it, even more so. Same for the shortest book, etc. I allow myself to interpret loosely I guess. :)

Nadine wrote: "Melissa wrote: "It seems like your TBR is locked once you see the prompt, and you're stuck with the longest, shortest, oldest, etc. that are there once you became aware of the prompt. ...

I find that helpful, actually! I know everyone is reacting differently to this one.

For me, if I sort through my TBR and find I just don't want to read the shortest/longest/oldest/whateverest book, that means I should just remove it from my TBR. And I'll keep deleting titles from my TBR until I get to one I actually want to read. My TBR is only virtual here on GR, so I don't feel pressure to get rid of a book I actually own or anything like that, which makes this easy for me."

Hah! If only I was able to be so disciplined and cutthroat with my TBR listing! LOL Perhaps that's why you're an engineer and I'm a displaced teacher! :)

Alex wrote: "The Idiot (not for the challenge). My church book club is reading this at my request. Ha! I love Dostoyevsky SO MUCH!!! I'm excited to reread this! Also nervous because Russian classics intimidate a lot of people and I don't want people hating me for suggesting this book, lol."

Oh, my! That is a really long one for a book club read! My fellow book club members would balk at that! I hope you all enjoy it! And I admire you for tackling it!

"Oh, and the book in a different format prompt. I'm print or nothing! How dare you make me change! XD"

I am the same way except when a book is ONLY available in a certain format! Usually that's true for some ebooks, but I discovered one this year that was only available in audiobook format on Audible (Thanks again, Jeff Bezos! lol).

Hooray for December!

Finished:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (A book by a WOC). I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book. It was amazing! Well written and I enjoyed the story (well enjoy might be a stretch since racism is a prevalent theme, but it was gripping). If you haven't read this book yet I highly recommend! You could even use it for the 2021 prompt "A book everyone seems to have read but you" or "A book found on a Black Lives Matter reading list." Planning on watching the movie this weekend too!

Almost done:
The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. I really enjoyed the first half of this book, but the second half is a snore. I have about 80 pages left so I will finish this week (hopefully).

Just Started:
Magic Lessons By Alice Hoffman (A book by an author who has written more than 20 books). Just started so we will see how this one goes.

QOTW:
Initially, when I read through the 2021 list I was not impressed with the topics - they seemed really specific with not a lot of choice. Now after reviewing the list for a few days I found a lot of books that will work for most of the prompts.

The only prompts I am having a hard time with are the "anonymous" prompt and the "zodiac" prompt. Most of these will just need a little more research, I could read Go Ask Alice again. I also found that both Louise Erdrich and Ian McEwan are Geminis! So that helps.

Alex wrote: "The Idiot (not for the challenge). My church book club is reading this at my request. Ha! I love Dostoyevsky SO MUCH!!! I'm excited to reread this! Also nervous because Russian classics intimidate a lot of people and I don't want people hating me for suggesting this book, lol. ..."


I went through a "Dostoyevsky phase" when I was young, and The Idiot was my favorite of his! (I didn't read EVERYTHING he wrote, just the four big titles that my library had: C&P, Brothers K, Idiot, and Notes from Underground)

For every one of his books, I would rigorously write down EVERY character as soon as they appeared, and then write down all their nicknames and relationships. (Of course, now I guess we have Wikipedia that does all this for us.)

Shannon wrote: "Finished:
The Girl in the Tower by Katherine Arden - a book with a 4-star + rating on Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ. AAAAA..."

Ooohhh...I loved the first installment and hope to get to this one next year since I didn't get to it this year!

"The Great Passage - a book set in Japan"

This looks interesting.

"I *might* finish by the skin of my teeth! (What a weird idiom...)"

Agreed! Weird and strange indeed.

QOTW: I have to say, I don't know that I'm particularly excited about any of the categories. Maybe when I actually start to read, I'll get into it more. I guess if I had to pick, one set in a place you'd like to go. I would love to go anywhere right now.

I'm dreading quite a few categories, but to choose one, one written by a blogger, etc. Blech.

Sheri wrote: "A note for the Anonymous prompt, it just says PUBLISHED anonymously, not that it's still anonymous. There's quite a few books that were published anonymously at the time, even if we know who wrote them now. Frankenstien, Go Ask Alice, The Federalist Papers, among others. Someone mentioned wanting only books by BIPOC, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man was originally anonymous, before the author came forward in 1927."

I noticed that when I searched for Go Ask Alice. Thanks for mentioning this, 'cause I think it could be very confusing!

Heather wrote: "Another week of very little reading and no finishes. That’s 3 weeks in a row now. But I have plans to change that this week. Now that we have the new list, I’m able to see which books on my TBR I c..."

Read a reasonable cookbook?

Katelyn wrote: "Hooray for December!

Finished:
The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas (A book by a WOC). I have no idea why I waited so long to read this book. It was amazing! Well written and I enjoyed the story (well enjoy might be a stretch since racism is a prevalent theme, but it was gripping). If you haven't read this book yet I highly recommend! You could even use it for the 2021 prompt "A book everyone seems to have read but you" or "A book found on a Black Lives Matter reading list." Planning on watching the movie this weekend too!."

I had no idea there was a movie! *Gently raising the rock under which I evidently live...*